Strategic Vista adds an R&D subsidiary

TORONTO - As a means of better coordinating its far-flung out-sourced research and development operations, Strategic Vista International has formed an in-house R&D team. Called Strategic Vista Technologies, the subsidiary will be headed up by company co-founder Joel Kligman. According to Kligman, the formation of SVT is part restructuring and part precursor of changes to come in the company’s R&D operations. “Our company to date has been primarily focused on doing R&D as an out-sourced function in various parts of the world,” he said. “We will now, over the course of the next few years, be implementing a new R&D center locally.” Localizing R&D operations will enable SVT to accomplish a number of goals, including customization, localization and supervision function, Kligman said. “As the company has grown, the projects have become larger and the technologies more complex, so we need to have a much tighter local control in order to move through the R&D process from conception to product much more quickly, effectively and efficiently,” he said. Strategic Vista will continue to outsource some of its R&D operations, Kligman said, but use the local presence to coordinate far-flung functions. According to Kligman, the launch of Strategic Vista’s Digimerge subsidiary and its acquisition of Mansoor Electronics, both of which took place in 2003, were among the factors that drove the creation of SVT. Kligman said in the future, the company should bring in more employees for the new division, but there is no set timetable for that to happen.